This is good. I used to think that, here in the US, the 1st amendment was a wonderful thing. Watching the anti-science and magat growth based on straight up lies has made me question that belief. As hawkwind says, it’s important to know who is deciding if something is fake, but so often if it gets to that point it’s like we’re missing out on fucking common fucking sense. If someone can’t tell that an election wasn’t stolen, or that a person isn’t a criminal when they admit to crimes, well…fuck 'em.
There was a good podcast about the first amendment by NPR. They talked about how it was never intended to mean what we think it does. Mostly about having to charge for the press. Even at the time, people were protesting the war and judges were putting them in jail despite the first amendment.
(I think it’s this one: https://radiolab.org/podcast/what-holmes)
The thing is that most people assume that the truth will always come through. I think we’ve seen over the years that that’s not the case. The first amendment is and should be an eternal debate about what’s true and what’s acceptable.
